Oscar Winners from the Late 1960s
Five Films Which Won Best Picture from 1965 to 1969
These five best picture winners from the first half of the 1960s included two musicals, an historical epic, a racial drama, and the only X-Rated film to win an Oscar.
Three of these films originated on the Broadway or London stage, one led to sequels and a popular TV series, while the last shocked some audiences with its sexual themes which were actually quite mild compared to today.
1965 Best Picture: The Sound of Music
Yes, this is a syrupy movie based on a syrupy Broadway production and it plays loose with the facts regarding the famous Von Trapp family singers, but who cares. This Rodgers and Hammerstein musical set box office records and is still an annual favorite on television during the Holiday Season. It is filled with memorable songs and beautiful cinematography.
Julie Andrews, who was not chosen to reprise her Broadway role in the film version of My Fair Lady (1964), gained revenge when she won as best actress that year for Mary Poppins and was nominated again for her role as Maria Von Trapp. Robert Wise, who had won best director for West Side Story (1961), won again for this film.
1966 Best Picture: In the Heat of the Night
This film was so successful that it later spawned two sequels and a long running television series. Sidney Poitier plays a black Philadelphia police detective who while visiting in Mississippi becomes involved with a red neck sheriff (Rod Steiger) and his investigation of the murder of a Chicago businessman. As the investigation proceeds, the sheriff gains a grudging respect, and then quiet admiration, for his counterpart.
Although sometimes criticized, then and today, as painting a distorted picture of Southern life in the 1960s, the film was an important milestone in its depiction of racial prejudice.
1967 Best Picture: The Lion in Winter
This film, almost entirely set in a dreary 12th Century castle, is best remembered for its razor sharp dialogue, amply sprinkled with wit. Henry II (Peter O’Toole), during a family gathering over Christmas, battles his estranged wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katherine Hepburn) and three sons over the future of the English throne.
This movie is not everybody’s cup of tea. Betraying its stage origins, there is little action and much talking and is basically a filmed play. Some viewers may simply not enjoy two hours plus of steady repartee, no matter how brilliantly spoken by its two excellent leads. (Side note: A very young Anthony Hopkins plays one of the sons.)
1968 Best Picture: Oliver!
Director Carol Reed, best known today for directing the film noir The Third Man, turned to a different genre in this adaptation of Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist. The result was a lively song and dance fest taken from the British stage.
Among the many fine performances in the movie, those that stand out the most are Ron Moody as the kindly Fagin and Oliver Reed (nephew of the director) as the paranoid Bill Sikes. Ten year-old Mark Lester is also more than adequate as Oliver.
This production would be the last musical to win as best picture until Chicago in 2002 and was also the last G-Rated film to win best picture.
1969 Best Picture: Midnight Cowboy
Joe Buck (Jon Voight) and “Ratso” Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), two men with warped ideas of achieving the American Dream, cross paths in New York and become unusual friends. Buck is a disillusioned Texan with plans to become a gigolo and Rizzo is a seedy con-man and thief whose goal is to go to Florida and become important. Unable to fulfill their dreams, one dies and the other only finds only disillusionment and despair.
This film with its strong sexual themes, including homosexuality, earned an “X” rating when first released, but it was later changed to “R” after winning the Oscar. Not to everybody’s tastes, the film is, nevertheless, an interesting character study.
These Oscar winning best pictures, along with those from the earlier 1960s, helped make the decade a notable one for filmmaking.
